Robbery at will in Salt Lake

By A STAFF REPORTER

Calcutta, April 30: A bank manager, his wife and their three children were tormented by six robbers, including a woman, at their Salt Lake home last night but police could not help the victims who were within a three-minute drive from the nearest police station.

"The robbers were so desperate that they beat us up with rods, slashed me with a chopper and even held our kids at gunpoint. We were so scared," said Surender Singh Dabla, 51, a chief manager with Allahabad Bank.

The robbers took away cash and jewellery worth Rs 3.5 lakh from the family that had shifted from Haryana to Calcutta 10 months back.

The family's one-storey address ' AD 125 ' is barely 1.5km from Bidhannagar North police station. The township was brought under a new commissionerate from January 20 this year.

The Telegraph has learnt that despite three calls to 100 ' the police helpline ' personnel from the nearest police station reached the spot almost half an hour after the robbers had fled. The first call was made by Snigdha Dey, a next-door neighbour, at 3.19am when she saw some people with their faces covered inside the Dabla residence. The police reached at 3.45am, Surender said. (See Metro)

The police denied the allegation of late reaction to the call.

According to the family, the gang of six robbers hacked the lock on the main grilled door before breaking open two wooden doors to enter the house. The family ' Surender, his wife Sudha, 42, and their three children Akshita, 10, Shaesta, 8, and Shaksham, 2 ' were sleeping in the same room as it has an air-conditioner.

"Around 3.05am, I woke up after I heard a huge thud.… The moment I opened the door of the bedroom, some people pounced on me and started beating me up with iron rods. I slumped on the bed and they entered the room," recounted the banker, who suffered a slash on his right hand when he tried to resist the machete-wielding robbers.

The commotion woke up the rest of the family and the children started crying. As Sudha tried to move towards her husband, whose right hand was bleeding, a robber whipped out a pistol and held it to her head.

"I stopped, but another man in the gang hit me on my left shoulder with an iron rod. They did not even spare the kids… The woman in the gang kept slapping and hitting them while another person pointed a gun at them," said Sudha.

As both Surender and Sudha pleaded with the robbers not to harm the kids, they told the couple to hand over all the valuables at home. Sudha took out her gold bangles and earrings and showed them the almirah, where a gold chain and Rs 35,000 in cash were kept in the safe.

"After taking away the valuables and the cash, they tied up my wife and me, gagged and blindfolded us and left the house. The kids untied us after the robbers left," said Surender, who then called twice on the police helpline at 3.25am and 3.35am.

In their complaint with the police, the family has mentioned that all the members of the gang were in their mid- or late twenties. "It seems that the gang members are professionals. We have started the investigation," said Rajiv Kumar, commissioner, Bidhannagar City Police.

Hindi movies show the same thing, the cops arriving after the hero ha thrashed the villain. Unfortunately, the villains in this case escaped. What has our Maa Mati Manush Didi to say about this. She will again issue a warning and suspend a cop or two. Or probably she will say it is a conspiracy to defame her government and that the robbers were CPM supporters.

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